[MUD-Dev] Procedural content generation

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Travis Nixon wrote:

> Although I think it's patently silly to make the claim that
> generated universes will NEVER have flavor, depth, and
> cohesiveness, I certainly agree with the fact that it's not
> possible right now.  At some point, though, we will really
> understand the processes we as humans use to create those things.
> And at that point, it will be possible to get a computer to do
> them, if a powerful enough computer exists at that point.

Hmm... I've said this before and will say it again, it does not
entirely depend on what IS, but the agency we assign to it, i.e. the
implied authorship.

      Heat.
      Green flowers.
      White pain.
      Destruction.

Assume that the above text was written by:

  1. your girlfriend

  2. a simple random poem generator program

The authorship clearly matters, a lot.

I like the explore/reveal distinction. Scientists reveal, humanists
explore, maybe.

You could make similar examples about landscapes, say; you hit this
path and it leads to a weird tree. If you know that this is
hand-made then you will intensify your exploration, looking for the
meaning, where is the secret door or the hidden house or...?

Getting a computer to create lots of different "human projects" is a
great challenge, way beyond what we can do today, even in
theory. IMO that implies creating a system that embed true knowledge
of what being a human is about and human interpretation (in a
cultural context, which is constantly changing)...

--
Ola  -  http://folk.uio.no/olag/

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev